


Dirt, Dust and Denial

by revolutionrose



Series: Dirt, Dust and Denial [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-17
Updated: 2014-09-17
Packaged: 2018-02-17 19:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2320439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/revolutionrose/pseuds/revolutionrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Erwin leaves Levi in charge, humanity’s strongest soldier decides its time to swap the swords and 3DMG for brooms and dustpans, and uncovers a little more than dirt and dust along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dirt, Dust and Denial

  
 

“And what exactly, does a ‘commander bonding trip’ entail?” Levi asks, eyeing Erwin skeptically. They’re all sitting in the meeting room, him, Erwin, Hanji and Mike, focusing intently on their commander’s troubled expression.

Erwin frowns, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. “I’m not entirely sure, although I saw Pixis loading an entire crate full of whiskey onto the horse cart we’ll be taking.” Sighing heavily, Erwin pinches the bridge of his nose. “Unfortunately, I promised Pixis sometime ago I’d accompany him on this venture so I can’t get out of it. I’ll be gone for a few days, and during that time, Levi will be in charge.”

Hanji moans and slumps forward onto the table, burying her head in her arms. Mike pats her comfortingly on the shoulder, and Levi shoots them both a look.

Erwin smiles lightly. “Good luck.”

  

 

Levi watches as all the members of the Scouting Legion line up obediently in front of him. Walking past the ranks, Levi carefully inspects everyone, checking that each person is equipped with the customary mop in one hand and a bucket of cleaning supplies in the other. He stops in front of Sasha, who has deemed it appropriate to substitute her mop for a chicken drumstick.  Levi remedies this by snatching the meat from her hand and throwing it over his shoulder, where Petra catches it with a yelp of surprise. Sasha wails a little until Mikasa silences her by shoving a sponge in her mouth.

After making his way back to the front, Levi surveys the mass of people before him intently. There’s one person who’s noticeably missing, and he glances at Mike questioningly. Mike makes a sleeping gesture with his hands, and Levi scowls. He’s about to go make a personal wake-up call when he realises everyone is still standing in front of him, waiting for his orders.

Levi crosses his arms and narrows his eyes. “ _Clean_.”

Nobody needs to be told twice, and everyone quickly scrambles away to perform their new duties.

                                                                                                                                                               

  

 “Where did Captain Levi go in such a hurry?” Nanaba asks curiously, sauntering up next to Mike. “Everyone was expecting a big speech on the importance of fine dusting.”

Mike smiles lightly, and slings an arm around Nanaba’s shoulders, pulling them close as he inhales the scent of their hair. Nanaba’s hair always smells like lilacs. It’s nice, Mike thinks, being able to use his keen sense of smell for things other than detecting approaching Titans. He nuzzles his face into Nanaba’s soft blonde tresses.

“Let’s just say Hanji is in for a rude awakening.”

 

  

 Levi barges into Hanji’s room, armed with a bucket of water in one hand. Hanji lays on the bed, face first into the pillow and limbs sprawled out awkwardly. She’s mumbling something in her sleep, and before he can stop himself, Levi leans in a little closer to hear properly. He tells himself he doesn’t particularly care what someone as obtuse as Hanji dreams about, and that he’s only motivated by temporary curiosity.   Her voice is muffled by the pillow, and he can barely discern what she’s rambling on about as Levi increases their proximity until his head is touching the back of hers.

“Sawwwwwwney, I didn’t mean to stab you  _that_  hard with the pitchfork,” Hanji mumbles softly. “You don’t have to bite my head off for it.”

Levi twitches, and empties the bucket of water over Hanji’s sleeping form without any more delay. A sense of satisfaction washes over him as he watches Hanji shriek in surprise and tumble straight off the bed before landing ungracefully on the floor.

“What the hell was that for?” Hanji asks crossly, getting to her feet. She glares at Levi through her wet bangs while she wrings out her drenched shirt, water dripping everywhere. “I’m completely soaked!”

“Then you should have listened when I told you yesterday that I needed everyone to be  up early in the morning to begin a thorough two-day intensive cleaning of the headquarters while Erwin is gone,” Levi replies unapologetically. “Get dressed immediately; I’m personally overseeing the cleanup of your room.”

Hanji frowns. “But my room isn’t that bad.”

Levi glances around. Except for a few stray notebooks and crumpled piece of papers on the floor, Hanji’s room was far more acceptable than some of the others he had inspected. But Hanji forgets Levi knows her more than she thinks, and he strides over to her closet and opens the door. An endless mountain of items comes tumbling out, ranging from scientific equipment to books to food to clothes to things that Levi decides he’ll label ‘unidentified objects.’ He turns back to Hanji and crosses his arms, silently challenging her to argue.

Hanji sighs as she scratches the back of her head. “…I’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

 

  

 “You will use these to sort all your crap out,” Levi says, placing two large boxes in front of Hanji. “Use one box for the things you want to keep and the other for the shit you want to throw out.”

He perches himself on her bed as he watches her sift through the pile of items on the floor and place it into the boxes. Fifteen minutes into the task, Levi notes one box is noticeably fuller than the other, which is practically empty. He asks Hanji which box is the one with the stuff that’s going to be thrown out, and he glowers at her when she sheepishly points to the one that has nothing in it.

“I just can’t bear to throw anything anyway,” Hanji exclaims dramatically, throwing herself over the fuller box and hugging it tightly. “All these things have value to me!”

“Cut the bullshit.” Levi walks over to her, nudging her away from the box and reaching inside to grab what looked like nothing but a used, old and dirty cloth. “What could you possibly still need this for?”

“It’s what I use to clean myself whenever Sawney or Bean drools on me,” Hanji replies casually, and Levi drops the cloth immediately. He makes a beeline for the door, ignoring Hanji’s calls behind him as he mentally calculates the amount of time he’ll need to spend scrubbing and washing his victimized hand.

 

  

After half an hour of intensive hand rinsing, Levi makes his way back to Hanji’s room, this time equipped with gloves and a new surge of determination. Along the way he scolds Sasha and Connie for using their mops to instigate an imaginary sword fight in the hallway, and reprimands Ymir for spending more of her time gazing at Christa (who is busy sweeping the floor while unsuccessfully trying to ignore Ymir’s lingering stares) than properly dusting the wall.

Ymir snorts and glares back at Levi defiantly. “Don’t get prissy at me just because you’re having trouble getting into Squad Leader Hanji’s pants.”

Christa makes a horrified noise and quickly runs over, head butting Ymir from behind. “Ymir, you can’t say something like that!”

“Why not, it’s the truth isn’t it? Maybe that’s why he’s so hell-bent on this whole cleaning business, because he has no other means to vent out his own pent-up frustration.”

Levi vaguely wonders if he could think up a crueler punishment for Ymir than being forced to clean the entirety of the second floor with only the bristle of a toothbrush. The fact that such a blatant and illogical lie came out of her mouth irritates him to the brim. As if he would ever think of Hanji  _that_  way…

“Levi!”

Levi freezes at the sound of Hanji’s voice behind him, and he sees the gears in Ymir’s head turn as she grins at him smugly. Before she can say anything, Christa quickly slams a hand over Ymir’s mouth. Taking advantage of Ymir’s temporary silence, Levi grasps Hanji’s arm and drags her behind him, trying to increase as much distance between them and Ymir’s incredibly absurd mouth as possible.

  

 

When they get back to her room, Levi realizes he’s still holding on to Hanji’s arm and swiftly lets go of it. Hanji doesn’t seem to notice and instead enthusiastically shows him how she managed to at least half-fill the box that is going to be thrown away.

“It was tough,” Hanji admits. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over throwing away my favorite tripod with the missing leg –” she pauses for effect, exhaling deeply and Levi resists the urge to roll his eyes. “But anyway, I’ve done it.  Oh, and I also found this!”

Levi stares at Hanji blankly when she eagerly shows him what looks like a torn piece of fabric from the Scouting Legion cloak, stained with dirt and dried blood. “More of your Titan infested remnants?”

“No! Don’t you remember, on the way back from our first expedition outside the walls, I had a gash on my arm and you tore a piece of your cloak and wrapped it around my wound?” Hanji smiles, waving the fabric in front of Levi’s face. “That was the first time you called me by my name and not some variation of ‘four-eyes.’”

“…and you’ve kept it, all these years?” Levi feels his mouth go dry, and not because of the fact that that fabric probably has never been washed since he wrapped it around Hanji’s arm (although that is a pressing concern to him, but it can wait.)

“Of course, I always considered it a valuable memory,” Hanji replies simply. “Although with all this sorting the stuff I need from the things I don’t, maybe it’s time I throw it –”

“No,” Levi interrupts, snatching the material from her hands. “Keep it, but let me wash it and then I’ll return it to you.”

Hanji blinks, looking startled. “Okay…”

“And since you’ve kept it safe for the last five years, I expect the same for the years to come,” Levi orders, wondering exactly what he is doing. Hanji seems to think the same, and they both stare at each other, a weird sort of tension filling the room. Levi doesn’t know whether to be grateful or irritated when he hears Petra’s voice addressing him.

“Captain Levi?”

Levi turns around to see Petra and Auruo standing in the doorway, the former looking uncomfortable as if she just intruded on a private moment (which it wasn’t, Levi tells himself, so why is Petra gazing at him so apologetically, damn it.) “What is it?”

“Jean’s stuck in the trash chute,” she announces, and Auruo guffaws loudly next to her. Petra frowns and steps on Auruo’s foot, hard.  “Erd and Gunther have been trying to pull him out for the last half an hour, but to no avail.”

“I’ll be right there,” Levi replies, watching Auruo hobble around in pain. For the sake of his own sanity, he avoids asking the more obvious question of ‘How?’ in regards to Jean’s situation, although Levi vaguely suspects Eren is the cause. He doesn’t look at Hanji when he speaks. “Hanji, I’m going to go deal with that mess, you finish up here.”

Resisting the urge to glance back at Hanji, Levi leaves her room, his grip unconsciously tightening around the torn piece of fabric in his hand.

 

  

The next day, Levi plans to begin the day by helping Hanji clean her lab. He’s on his way when Mike suddenly appears in front of him, blocking his way and smiling knowingly.

“What?” Levi snaps, unnerved by Mike’s amused expression.

“I just find it interesting that with so much to oversee you’re spending so much of your valuable time  _personally_ assisting Hanji first thing in the morning,” Mike replies, twirling a duster in his fingers.

“I’m not going to see Hanji,” Levi retorts, wishing he could shove that duster somewhere critical in Mike’s body. Mike is making it sound as if Levi is giving Hanji preferential attention which most certainly is  _not_  the case. “I’m going to check if Berthold and Reiner are folding the uniforms like I told them to.”

“But aren’t Berthold and Reiner that way?” Mike asks, pointing at the opposite direction Levi came from.

Levi grits his teeth. “I’m well aware of where Berthold and Reiner are. I just wanted to stretch my legs a bit. Do you have a problem with that?”

“No problem,” Mike walks casually past him and Levi notes the tiniest hint of a smirk on the bastard’s face. “No problem at all.”

 

  

Levi must have slammed the door open a little too hard, since Berthold jumps in surprise and nearly falls of his chair. Despite their quick reaction, Levi doesn’t miss Reiner’s hand retracting from its position on Berthold’s thigh. Reiner stands up as if nothing just happened and salutes Levi proudly, showing him the piles of neatly folded clothes on the table. “We’re pretty much done here, Captain.”

Still fuming over the earlier conversation with Mike, Levi isn’t particularly in the mood to inspect Berthold and Reiner’s work, nor deal with their wandering hands. “Not bad, now go and clean all the closets in this place. I don’t want to see a single cobweb or stain on the walls when you’re done.”

“Don’t worry, Captain.” Reiner replies passionately. “Berthold and I visit the closets enough times during the day to know where the soiled spots are.”

Reiner is either oblivious or just doesn’t care about the words that spill out of his mouth, but the implication isn’t lost on Levi. He turns to Berthold, completely unimpressed. Berthold covers his face with his hands and sinks miserably to the floor.

 

  

Levi visits Hanji’s lab a few hours later, after dealing with a particularly troublesome incident where Sasha and Connie dropped mattresses (which they were supposed to be putting clean sheets on) down the stairs as some sort of make-shift slide. It was a little more annoying to find that they somehow managed to rope Auruo in their shenanigans, who bit his tongue several times while making up countless excuses to Levi for his behavior.

Moblit is busy cleaning Hanji’s scientific apparatuses when Levi arrives, and he watches as Moblit immediately walks toward him, looking troubled. “Squad leader isn’t doing so well.”

“Oh?” Levi glances at Hanji’s desk, where he can see the top of her head sticking out of over the high stacks of papers sitting on her work surface. He strides over to her, and she acknowledges him with a nod of her head.

Hanji rests her chin on clasped hands, staring intently at the piles of documents in front of her. “…I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Tch, predictable.” Levi sits on the edge of Hanji’s desk and reaches for the mass of research papers. “I’ll help you sort this shit out.”

“No!” Hanji shrieks, slapping Levi’s hand away. “I need to sort these out accurately with someone who understands my research.” She pauses, thinking for a second. “Get me Armin!”

Levi pretends he doesn’t feel the least bit slighted when he leaves to get Armin.

 

  

“You guys didn’t have to help me, you know,” Eren says, furiously scrubbing at the floor. “It’s my own fault Captain Levi punished me to clean the entire basement again because of the whole Jean incident.”

“It is  _your_ fault,” Mikasa agrees, wiping sweat from her brow. “But that isn’t new information.”

“You shouldn’t have done that to Jean,” Armin says, frowning. “I know it was wrong of him to splatter the basement walls with tomato sauce to give you more work, but still…”

Eren gazes at Armin incredulously. “You seem awfully preoccupied with Jean lately.”

Armin turns a faint shade of red and quickly changes the topic. “I’ve been writing to Annie and she tells me the Military Police have the cleanest quarters she’s ever seen.”

“Don’t let Captain Levi hear that, it will just give him more incentive to give us additional work,” Eren replies seriously, wringing out his sponge over a bucket of water. “It’s gotten so bad that Connie told me he’s been having dreams about Captain chasing him with a dustpan.” He stands up, sighing in satisfaction as he tosses the sponge over his shoulder. “Finally, I’m done!”

“E-Eren…”

“What’s wrong?” Eren asks, perplexed at Armin’s nervous tone. He notes both Armin and Mikasa are not looking at him, but staring at something behind him. Dread fills Eren’s stomach as he turns around to see Levi standing in front of him, a sponge sliding down his face with a noticeable wet sound onto the floor.

Eren is speechless, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water, while Armin buries his face into his hands.  Mikasa seems unaffected as she returns to scrubbing the floor, and the only sound that’s heard amidst the painful silence is Mikasa muttering  ‘Eren’, ‘trial’ and ‘karma’ underneath her breath.

 

   

As they make their way to Hanji’s lab (with Levi ignoring Armin’s endless stream of apologies on Eren’s behalf) Levi thinks he should feel pity toward Armin for being tasked with organizing Hanji’s research papers, instead of feeling some sort of irrational irritation toward the boy. It’s not like Levi would ever want to spend the day listening to Hanji’s science-related crap, and repeats this to himself fervently when Hanji’s face brightens the moment he arrives with Armin. She doesn’t even look at Levi as she tosses him a quick ‘Thanks!’ before latching onto Armin’s arm and dragging him enthusiastically to her desk. He watches as Hanji unceremoniously dumps a stack of papers into Armin’s arms and chatters to him excitedly.

“Captain, are you alright?”

Moblit is standing next to him, a look of concern etched in his face. Levi doesn’t understand why Moblit would think he isn’t okay until Levi realizes how hard he’s clenching his fists. He relaxes his hands.

“Make sure she doesn’t pick Armin’s brain too much,” Levi tells Moblit, paying no attention to Hanji’s ramblings in the background. “I don’t think Erwin would appreciate his future tactical genius getting his brains fried thanks to an overbearing four-eyed Titan fetishist.”

Levi exits Hanji’s lab, not bothering to look back.

 

  

At lunch, Levi suspects Mike is on a mission to piss him off in every way possible. Mike and Nanaba are sitting opposite Levi, and every now and then Mike gives Nanaba bits of his own meal accompanied by a sickeningly loving glance, which Nanaba only gladly reciprocates. It wouldn’t have bothered Levi so much if Hanji wasn’t sitting next to him, practically cooing over the silly display.

“You two are delightful,” Hanji says dotingly, and Mike shoots Levi a rather smug and challenging look.

Something in Levi snaps, and he grabs his plate and dumps every last smidgen of food onto Hanji’s plate. When he’s done, he sits back, waiting for Hanji to make the same noise of approval as she did when Mike gave scraps of his food to Nanaba. It never comes, and instead Levi watches Mike turn around in his chair, his shoulders visibly shaking as he pathetically attempts to hide his laughter. Next to him, Nanaba attempts to be a little bit more polite by trying to keep a straight face, only to cover their mouth with their hands seconds later, trying to stifle the sounds of their chuckles.

Hanji isn’t laughing, but gaping at Levi with a confused expression. He can tell she wants to ask him about what he just did, but Levi really doesn’t want to get into it. Thankfully, Sasha and Connie choose that time to run past their table, both wearing soup bowls on their heads and hitting each other with wooden spoons, and provide Levi with a reason to excuse himself.

  

 

Levi spends the rest of the day steering clear of Hanji, not feeling particularly keen on seeing her. He pretends he doesn’t hear her when she calls out to him and walks away whenever he sees her coming toward him out of the corner of his eye. At dinner, he sits with his own squad rather than his usual place with Hanji and Mike. Petra even tentatively asks him if he’s okay but Levi merely grunts in reply.

He doesn’t sleep much that night, spending most of the hours tossing and turning, trying to ignore the little voice in his head that tells Levi he should be a little bit bothered that Hanji doesn’t even seem to notice or care that he’s avoiding her. The lack of sleep plagues him until the early hours of the morning when he decides he may as well get up.

He leaves his room to go to the cleaning supply closet, taking care to put a bucket in front of the open door and surveys the range of mops in front of him. It’s not like the ceiling of his room is particularly dirty, but at this point he needs something to distract him so his mind isn’t focused on thinking about a certain bespectacled idiot. In the midst of picking the most suitable mop for his purposes, he hears the one voice that he doesn’t want to hear.

“Hey, Levi!”

Levi turns around, watching Hanji march into the closet and accidentally knock over the bucket he was using to hold the door open.

“Hanji don’t let –”

The door slams shut with a loud bang.

“…the door close.” he finishes.

Hanji bites her lip, eyes darting from the door back to Levi. “Oops.”

 

  

“This is your entire fault,” Levi says tetchily, pulling on the door knob with both hands. “If that dense head of yours possessed the ability to process words other than your own you would have heard me warn you to  _not close the door because it only opens from the outside.”_

Hanji makes a face, and settles herself on the floor of the closet they were currently stuck in.  “Why did you need a mop anyway? I know you’re taking this spring cleaning thing incredibly seriously, but what kind of a person cleans their ceiling at 5 am in the morning?”

Levi halts his futile battle with the door, crosses his arms and glowers at Hanji. “I don’t want to hear anything from the person who’s awake at 5 am to borrow brooms to investigate the oral cavities of 7 meter humanoid giants with a taste for human flesh.”

“At any rate, we’re stuck here until everyone wakes up,” Hanji replies, pointedly ignoring Levi’s last comment. “The only other person who sleeps on this floor is Mike and he wouldn’t wake up even if you blasted a horn right near his ear, so yelling for assistance would be ultimately pointless at the moment.”

He knows Hanji is right, and Levi places himself next to her on the floor, drawing his knees to his chest. Erwin is returning in a couple of hours, and Levi hopes someone lets them out by then or he’ll never hear the end of it.

They sit in silence for a few minutes until Hanji extracts a pen from her pocket and begins doodling on her hand. Levi frowns and nudges her leg with his foot.

“Stop defacing your hand, it’s gross.”

“But I’m bored,” Hanji whines, and suddenly seizes Levi’s hand tightly in her own. “Let me draw on yours!”

He doesn’t know if it’s because of the tight, confined space of the closet and the fact that they are completely alone, but heat erupts through every pore of Levi’s body at Hanji’s touch, and he swiftly snatches his hand away from her grasp, glowering at her as if she burnt him. Suddenly Ymir’s earlier comment springs to the forefront of Levi’s mind and he can practically feel the brat smirking at him. At the same time he remembers what Berthold and Reiner have been using the closets for, and the entire situation begins to make Levi feel intensely disturbed.

Ignoring Hanji’s perplexed expression, Levi scoots away from her and draws an invisible line on the floor with his finger. “Cross this line and I’ll drown you in bug spray,” Levi threatens, leaning his head against the wall. “We’re going to be here for a fucking while so I’m going to get some sleep; I suggest you do the same.” He closes his eyes, waiting for Hanji to say something, but she never does.

 

  

It’s Moblit who eventually opens the door, relief evident in his face. Apparently he was worried sick that Hanji had finally fallen victim to one of Sawney and Bean’s early morning jaw exercises and was on the verge of panicking when he couldn’t find her.

“Don’t be silly, Moblit.” Hanji says cheerfully, dusting herself off as she gets up from the floor. “You're more likely to find my dead body with Levi standing over it with a mop than in the mouth of a Titan.”

 Levi starts to make some sort of snide comment in reply, until he notices Moblit looking at him almost fearfully. Before he can ask Moblit anything, Hanji links arms with her assistant and yanks him behind with her, yelling at Levi over her shoulder. “Don’t wait up at breakfast for me!”

Scowling, Levi makes his way to dining hall. It’s not like he ever waits for her at breakfast anyway, and he certainly isn’t going to start now.

When he enters, Levi observes how the usual load raucous noise drops to hushed murmurs. As he makes his way to Mike and Nanaba, Levi notes how most people are wearing an expression similar to Moblit’s back in the closet, except for Sasha, who points at him with a look of awe until Connie tugs her arm back down, and Mikasa, who looks a little more smug than usual.

Something was not right.

“Mike, what hell is wrong with everyone?” Levi asks irritably, sitting down. Mike says nothing, staring at Levi seriously while Nanaba suddenly seems very interested in the contents of their plate.

“Captain?”

Erd, Gunther, Petra and Auruo appear next to Levi, every single one of them clearly uncomfortable. Levi is acutely aware how the entire hall suddenly goes into complete silence, and he gazes at his squad questioningly. Petra opens her mouth but then closes it immediately, seemingly hesitant about something. Auruo coughs and gives her a light shove on the back, pushing her toward Levi.

Levi is beginning to lose patience. “What is it?”

 “Um, I think its best you have a look,” Petra says nervously, holding out a mirror in front of Levi’s face.

An insurmountable amount of fury courses through Levi’s veins as he examines his reflection.  _Someone_ has scribbled all over his face, printing the words CLEAN FREAK over his forehead, while his left and right cheeks are adorned with drawings of a broom and a feather duster.

“Petra.”

“Y-Yes, Captain?”

“Get me a pen.”

 

  

Levi bursts into Hanji’s room, slamming the door open. She tries to quickly run past him, but he’s much faster and takes hold of her waist, throwing her onto the bed. Levi tackles Hanji, straddling her waist and trapping her arms with her legs. He disregards her shrieking as he grips her chin with one hand and begins drawing on her face with the other. After he finishes scrawling the word SHITTY on Hanji’s forehead, Levi begins to move on to GLASSES until he realizes their current position is rather intimate. Hanji is lying underneath him, face flushed as she squirms and writhes to escape from his hold. It makes Levi feel unsettled in more ways than one, and he hastily finishes scribbling on Hanji’s face before climbing off her.

Hanji lays motionless for a few seconds before getting up and looking at herself in the mirror. “I suppose I deserved that.”

“Nice to know you’re able to comprehend situations other than ones involving those Titans you enjoy lusting after so much,” Levi replies rudely, cursing himself for taking pleasuring in having Hanji’s body underneath his own.

Frowning, Hanji turns to him. “You know, I let it go at first because it’s in your nature to act crabby most of the time, but recently you’ve been acting really weird, don’t think I haven’t noticed. What’s going on?”

Levi knows exactly why he’s been behaving the way he has, and comes to the conclusion that denial is leading him ultimately nowhere. But it’s not like he’ll ever admit anything out loud so he decides to take a more abstract approach. He walks over to Hanji, grabs her hand and draws a very deformed, messy but unmistakable heart on her palm.

Hanji stares at the drawing on her hand. “This is…?”

“Not something as tangible as a torn piece of my cloak, but something else of mine I want to give to you that you’ll have all the time,” Levi replies, trying to sound as if saying all this isn’t making him want to bang his head repeatedly against a hard surface. “If you accept,” he points to his own palm, “then let me know here, the same way I did for you.”

Levi is somewhat pleased to see he’s rendered Hanji speechless for once. “While you mull over that, I am going to go deal with everyone else.”

His words snap Hanji out of her daze. “W-What?”

“You may have been the main culprit for this shit on my face, but nobody else told me about it until the last minute.”

“You’re not going to-?”

“Yes I am,” Levi replies darkly. “Let’s see how many faces it takes for the ink in this pen to run out, shall we?”

 

  

When the members of the Scouting Legion line up outside to salute his return, Erwin isn’t sure what to think, let alone react.  Every last face is covered in ink scribbles of some kind, and he’s especially jarred by a rather obscene drawing gracing Mike’s forehead. Hanji is a little red, looking pointedly at the ground while Levi isn’t even bothering to salute him, but staring at something on his palm with a rather satisfied expression.

Pixis is standing next to Erwin, humming happily to himself. “Looks like you missed something rather interesting, I daresay.”

 “Hey Pixis?”

“Hm?”

“I think I could use a few more days of some commander bonding,” Erwin says dryly. “What do you think?”

Laughing wholeheartedly, Pixis claps Erwin on the back. “I agree completely.”

 

 

 


End file.
